APA Publication and Style Manual: Introduction

Introduction

APA PUBLICATION & STYLE MANUAL INTRODUCTION

The APA Publication Manual is the official manual of style of the American Psychological Association. Developed to provide guidance and information for those writing and publishing, it is currently in its sixth edition.

The APA Publication Manual is used extensively by students, faculty, researchers, and professionals who write and publish in the fields of Psychology, Education, Business, Law and Justice, Journalism, Linguistics, Nursing, Medicine, although other styles are also used.

Which style guide should you use? The one your professor requires, so be sure to ask. If you plan to submit a paper for publication, be sure to confirm the correct style. Nearly all publications will identify and give some direction about how manuscripts should be submitted for publication. If not in the publication, guidance will be offered on publishers' websites, or the websites of the organization for whom the journal title is published, if relevant.

Links to Useful Resources

Items in the Library and Available Online

Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association
by American Psychological Association Staff

Call Number: BF76.7 .P83 2010

ISBN: 9781433805615

Publication Date: 2010-01-01

In addition to providing guidance on grammar, the mechanics of writing, and APA style, this manual offers an authoritative reference and citation system. It also covers the treatment of numbers, statistical and mathematical data, tables and figures.

A copy of the APA Publication manual is also kept on Reserve. Ask at the Circulation Desk.

Written by experienced psychology instructors Beth M. Schwartz, R. Eric Landrum, and Regan A. R. Gurung, all active and respected members of the American Psychological Association (APA) Society for the Teaching of Psychology, the updated Third Edition of An EasyGuide to APA Style provides a reader-friendly guide for mastering APA style and covers all sections of an APA-style paper. Clear, conversational, and humorous, the book presents easy-to-understand explanations of how to write research papers, term papers, and lab reports, and cite references following APA style and format. The authors focus on the most essential elements of APA style and format, offering useful advice, tips, and visual representations.

Mastering APA Style
by American Psychological Association Staff

Call Number: Ref. BF76.8 .G452 2010

ISBN: 9781433805578

Publication Date: 2009-07-15

This user-friendly training guide includes groups of instructional exercises and practice tests on various aspects and features of the sixth edition of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, including electronic references and citations, grammar, headings, seriation, statistical and mathematical copy, italics and capitalization, numbers style, and table formatting. The exercises and tests require students to apply APA Style to prove that they can use it accurately in term papers and research reports. This workbook is a self-pacing, self-teaching workbook that can be used to learn APA Style quickly and effectively. Intended for students of psychology or related disciplines as well as other professions that use APA Style, Mastering APA Style: Student's Workbook and Training Guide is an effective learning tool for the classroom or independent study.

The Legacy version will soon disappear so we recommend you use the new Refworks. RefWorks is a Citation and Bibliographic Management tools, which the library provides to students and faculty at no cost. Complete the short easy registration once and access. To take full advantage of the range of tools available, we recommend you open YouTube, search for RefWorks and watch the tutorials. You'll be an expert in no time. A few minute to set up and learn to use RefWorks will save you hours of frustration and make you look brilliant.

"The Online Writing Lab (OWL) at Purdue University houses writing resources and instructional material, and we provide these as a free service of the Writing Lab at Purdue. Students, members of the community, and users worldwide will find information to assist with many writing projects. Teachers and trainers may use this material for in-class and out-of-class instruction." (source: website)

While Rowan provides access to RefWorks, at no cost to students, EasyBib is another well know citation management tool. The EasyBib blog, linked here, provides great examples for structuring citations.

Search a web-based resource, whether a journal, website, ebook, etc. Bibme.org will display the information you need to cite the source.

Tips & Templates

N.B.

Note that while the following links offer great citation examples, based on the APA Publication Manual, inaccuracies and issues can arise. You will benefit immensely if you take the time to familiarize yourself with the APA manual so you can adjust or correct as needed.

that provides examples for about 30 types of documents.

Website Resources

"The Online Writing Lab (OWL) at Purdue University houses writing resources and instructional material, and we provide these as a free service of the Writing Lab at Purdue. Students, members of the community, and users worldwide will find information to assist with many writing projects. Teachers and trainers may use this material for in-class and out-of-class instruction." (source: website)

The Purdue OWL site is nearly everyone's favorite Go-To website for help with writing and examples of the APA style are very clear.

EasyBib Add-On

The easiest automatic bibliography citation generator is now on Google Docs!. Format in MLA, APA, Harvard, and over 7K more styles!

The Bibliography Creator by EasyBib allows you to easily create a bibliography for your research paper. Automatically cite books, journal articles, and websites just by entering tites or URLs. Format citations in MLA, APA, Chicago, Harvard, and over 7K other styles. When you're finished creating your bibliography, click Generate Bibliography and we'll alphabetize your citations and add them to the end of your paper.

EasyBib Blog

While Rowan provides access to RefWorks, at no cost to students, EasyBib is another well know citation management tool. The EasyBib blog, linked here, provides great examples for structuring citations.

About this Libguide

This site is maintained by Phyllis Meredith with the intention of introducing and providing links to resources that explain and support the American Psychological Association (APA) Style Guide.

Rowan Library LibGuides are hosted on the Springshare LibGuides Portal, to which Rowan University Libraries subscribes. Please send comments, suggestions, corrections to Phyllis Meredith. Her email link is provided in the Subject Librarian Profile.

Rowan University makes no claim to freely available websites nor does it accept responsibility for the information or opinions expressed by those who have created or authored the content or by those who are quoted on the sites.

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